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Posts Tagged ‘rafael nadal’

Congratulations to Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal, who competed their way into the Indian Wells semi-finals last night.

Sharapova effortlessly dominated the first set, then completely lost her way, struggling with Peng’s retrieving and resistance and above all her own serve, which totally collapsed. It really looked like she was going out until with her back against the wall, she reeled off two clean and beautiful backhand winners in consecutive points and from that point on, never looked back. Very well done to her, although I don’t favour her chances in the semi-final, given that Wozniacki is (I think) her equal in competitive tenacity and has a game built to elicit the kind of unforced errors she’s so prone to.

Huge props to Peng Shuai for her run here. She’s going to be in a Slam quarter-final before the year is out. /bold prediction

Yet again, I didn’t see Rafa play because it was in the middle of the night. I did watch the first set and thought that Karlovic’s excellent play rather than anything Nadal was doing or not doing was responsible for the good doctor taking it 75. Nadal came back strongly in the second set and finally scraped through (quoting the headlines) 9-7 in the final tiebreak.

Sad for the good Dr. Ivo but he’s had an absolutely amazing run here in Indian Wells and should be getting a wildcard anywhere he wants one from now on. And he’s 32. Christ on a bike.

Juan Martin del Potro and Tommy Robredo we know about. But who else is in the quarter-finals? Stunningly, these three:

Neither Roger nor Rafa had a particularly easy time of it during last night’s night session – which I didn’t watch because it was in the middle of the bloody night – as Ryan Harrison and Somdev Devvarman respectively put up a good fight, but they still won in straight sets and progress. It doesn’t quite match Djokovic’s frankly terrifying 60 61 victory over Viktor Troicki, but then what does? I’m starting to idly wonder if Nole kept on being unbeatable for the next, say, two years, whether I would eventually find it boring. I don’t think so.

Rafa will face Ivo Karlovic in the quarters after the Croatian with a mission beat Albert Montanes, 76(7) 62. I must admit I haven’t watched Karlovic since he upset Ferrer earlier in the tournament, but he does seem to be doing something right. The winner of that will meet either JMDP or Robredo.

Based on the fun last night, it looks as if Djokovic’s next match might finally be a challenge for him after Richard Gasquet completely outplayed Andy Roddick for a 63 76(5) victory. I can’t really do justice to the way Gasquet played except to say that it was a beautiful, brief shining reminder of exactly why we’ve all talked about this man forever. He backhanded Roddick to death, was cool and clutch in the biggest moments, and had the American so frustrated that he tossed his racquet more than once and attempted to give the umpire a warning for “freaking ineptitude”. I can understand his emotions at being so publicly trampled upon, but he doesn’t win my respect with that attitude – particularly because I don’t think he would have behaved like that if he’d been across the net from, say, Federer. Anyway, Gasquet moves on with a well-deserved victory, and if he brings the same form to the court against Djokovic, we could have a classic.

Completing the final eight is Stan Wawrinka, who has quietly been having a dead impressive tournament, proving too good for Nikolay Davydenko, Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych in succession. It’s hard to put your finger on what separates top-flight Stan from regular Stan, and harder still to predict if he can bring it to the court against Federer, but if he does this could be another brilliant match. All in all, it’s a sensational quarter-finals lineup with the tantalising possibility of upsets. I’m excited.

I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be eating my shoes or my hat or my feet right now, but along with many of you, this was not the result I expected to wake up to after staying up late to catch Murray-Dolgopolov and assuming I could get my shuteye in during a routine Nadal win. Even when I got woken up by a text message saying “I’m really frightened for Murray now!”, I assumed the sender meant that Nadal had performed more terrifyingly than usual, and decided to snore some more. Once I finally woke up and saw the result, I decided to watch the match back to see what exactly happened.

I watched it and came to the following conclusion: well done Ferru. And well done Nadal.

As you have no doubt heard by now, Nadal was undoubtedly injured. I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but something happened to his left leg in the second game (clarified later as a muscle tear), and although he managed to regain the service break he’d lost, he called the trainer immediately. As he left the court for evaluation, he looked over to his box, raised his eyebrows, and shook his head. Serious, his face said. And Nadal can say more with his face than just about anyone.

From that point on, his movement was clearly somewhat compromised and the match was there to be taken. That’s not to downplay the achievement of David Ferrer, who played about as well as I’ve seen him. Put the vast majority of players on court with a Nadal who can still run, and still hit, and wants this win about as much as he’s ever wanted anything, and there’s a pretty good chance that Nadal will manage to gut it out. Ferrer shut his friend’s predicament out of his mind and shut Nadal ruthlessly out of the match, then paid tribute to him as a gentleman and a friend. It was about as impressive a display of tennis and sportsmanship as I’ve ever seen, a rare combination of competitive intensity and grace, and a second Slam semi-final is a just reward.

Also, he’s hot.

A clearly crushed Nadal refused to discuss the extent of his injury in his presser:

I had a problem during the match, in the very beginning. […] After that, the match was almost over. So that’s what I can say. But you know what, for me is difficult come here and speak about. In Doha I wasn’t healthy. Today I have another problem. Seems like I always have problems when I lose, and I don’t want to have this image, no? I prefer don’t talk about that today. If you can respect that, will be a very nice thing for me. Thank you.

Of course, as Jon Wertheim puts it, “he can take the high road, but we can’t.” The speculation over the extent of Nadal’s injury and its possible effects is likely to rage for some time and unfortunately tends to overshadow Ferrer’s win. But the encouraging thing for Nadal fans is that … well … it’s not the knees. It’s not tendonitis, it’s not chronic. It’s really unfortunate, but if there’s anybody that can take this on the chin and come back, it’s Nadal. He’s done it before.

Ferrer meanwhile will play Andy Murray in the semifinals after Muzz beat Dolgopolov in a scrappy four-set performance. In the interests of not jinxing or giving myself a stress-induced heart-attack, I’m just going to sort of pretend Murray doesn’t exist for now. OK?

All is set for the fifteenth meeting between Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. Imagine my excitement.

Rafa, wearing what for him is a distinctly baggy shirt, looks to be recovered from his fever and put in probably his best performance of the tournament so far in defeating Marin Cilic 62 64 63. He didn’t play his best, but he really didn’t have to; it was businesslike more than anything, not expending too much energy and giving Marin enough rope to hang himself (these days, a tennis racquet).

It’s a step forward for Marin to have won three consecutive matches to get this far, but his performance today was a perfect example of everything that’s bedevilled his game for the last 12 months; lack of first serves, lack of confidence, lack of confidence and lack of confidence. He consistently managed to get to 30 or deuce on Rafa’s serve, but from there only got three break points which he couldn’t convert, and he didn’t help his cause by getting irritated by Rafa’s slow pace of play, which will never change despite getting twice warned by the umpire. He wasn’t anywhere near good enough today.

David Ferrer was too good for young Canadian qualifier Milos Raonic, who took the first set but couldn’t sustain the red-hot quality of play that has got him through the tournament so far. Hurt by a lack of first serves, he was predictably outsteadied by Ferru, who played well and was sweet to him at the net.

I really wish I could muster some excitement about Nadal-Ferrer in the quarterfinals, but there’s a reason that Ferrer’s not won since 2007, and as well as he’s playing right now, I don’t see that changing.

You know, my sister – irritatingly – had the poor taste to be born on a Wimbledon semifinals day way back when, and compounds her error by insisting on some form of ‘celebration’ of her birthday every year which almost always prevents me from watching the men’s final. I ask you. Anyway, I was explaining to someone at work today that I hadn’t had time to watch it back yet. “Don’t bother,” he advised. “Watch the highlights.” And this is a tennis-mad sports journo talking.

I disregarded that advice, obviously, but having watched the whole thing, I don’t have that much to say about the actual match; clinical rather than exhilarating from Rafa, just too many errors from Berdych (although no doubt Rafa would have raised his level had Berdych raised his). It didn’t need to be that big a performance from Rafa, though, and I’m not casting aspersions on Berdych here; he had already in a sense had his big performances of the tournament, first by overcoming some determined challenges from underdogs Petzchner and Haase (and I do attribute that to the level of play they showed, rather than Rafa being sub-par), and secondly in his dominance of Soderling and Murray. Nothing left to do on the Sunday but get the job done, and that’s what he did, emphatically.

A word, of course, for Tomas Berdych, who I think has caught a bit of undeserved flak for his performance yesterday; he was hardly bad, just a little overpowered by the occasion (and there was that dude at the other end of the court). First finals are hard; people talk about ‘nothing to lose’, but as Francesca Schiavone astutely pointed out before the French Open final, whenever you’re playing for something, there’s always something to lose. Besides, I imagine you’re not thinking about your ‘first’ final in that situation as much as you are thinking ‘this might be my only final’.

He’s had, of course, a fantastic tournament, doing that thing that’s always a thrill when a talented player finds whatever recipe it is that works in order to do what people have always suspected he could. And I was encouraged by the way he talked quite soberly, both in his on-court interview and his press conference, about knuckling down and kicking on and building on what he’s achieved. I really hope he can. I want to see more of the kind of tennis he’s played to light a fire under these championships.

And that smile …

Rafa, though. I think it speaks volumes for how finely-balanced the state of affairs is at the top of the men’s game when it feels this noteworthy for the no. 1 player (albeit not the no. 1 seed) to win Wimbledon. When you consider where and how Rafa was twelve months ago, to have come back stronger and – I don’t think there can be any doubt – looking more dominant than ever before is really remarkable. I mean … what can you say? You know it all, anyway. And honestly, how many people in history have celebrated their eighth Grand Slam with a roly-poly on Centre Court that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the field at lunchtime? That’s Rafa. Can’t wait to see what he does if and when he wins the US Open.

I do want to say how pleased I am for the lovely Rafa fans I know – Jewell and AmyLu in particular, neither of whom I know really believed this would happen this year.

RAFAEL NADAL: I never like the comparations. No, every year is completely different. For me was amazing day, very important victory for me, one of the more difficult victories of my career because the opponent was playing well and I need really to play my best tennis to try to win.

I think, yeah, I am very happy. Today is very important day for me.

Q. Because of all of what you had to go through last year with the injuries, is it even more satisfying now that you’re back here?

RAFAEL NADAL: Well, that’s past. But, sure, I said in Monte‑Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Roland Garros, sure, when you had tough moments and wasn’t an easy year last year ‑ especially the second half of the year ‑ when you came back and when you still playing another time at your best, for sure I feel I playing at my best since the start of this season, since 2010 when I start.

But I didn’t win a tournament since 11 months, and after I started to win in Monte‑Carlo. So for sure that’s makes more special, because I worked a lot to be back playing my best tennis. I did, so that’s very important personal satisfaction, no? Probably is when you have tough moments and you are another time are in the top, yeah, is more special.

Q. Does 2008 seem like a long time ago when you were here raising the trophy as the champion, or does it seem like yesterday to you?

RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t know. Two years. Well, the life is go fast. Since these two year a lot of things happen to my life. Is not very far, but at the same time I have two years with different things.

Q. You were behind 4‑2 in the last set and you weren’t playing very well then. Suddenly you win the rest of the games as you became Rafael Nadal again. Did you have to wake up?

RAFAEL NADAL: No, no. I felt a little bit tired after the second, after the second tiebreak. Was a lot of tension in that tiebreak in the last games of the second set.

When I started the third I lost a little bit my concentration and I felt little bit down. But that’s happen at only one game. After that game, after the first game. But, you know, in grass, one break is almost the set.

After that game I felt another time well. But Andy served well and I didn’t have lots of chances on the return. But when I had the chance, I did. So that was the most important thing of the match. I think of all important moments, just one double‑fault in the 5‑All in the tiebreak. But for the rest of the important moments, I played very well today.

Q. It will go down as a straight‑sets victory today, but how well did Andy Murray play?

RAFAEL NADAL: Andy’s amazing player, so I don’t know how well he played. You can answer him.

But when I play against him I always see the match very, very difficult, because he makes the very difficult things very easy. So he has a good serve, and the movements are unbelievable from the baseline, no?

He looks like he’s always at the way that you’re gonna play, so he’s very difficult. For that reason I think it’s one of the biggest victories in my career today.

[…] Q. Was it hard to recover from the double‑fault mentally?

RAFAEL NADAL: No, because I played a great point next point. But if Andy makes the serve and give me a set point was the set, so was important mistake. But I was lucky Andy missed the first serve, and later I had a chance to play the point from the baseline and I did well.

Q. What about Andy, you said to him after the match that he could win a major.

RAFAEL NADAL: I wished him best of luck for the rest of the season, and sorry for today. I know it was an important match for him I think because he play at home, and this is a chance for him to win probably the most important title for him win here at home in Wimbledon.

Just I felt sorry for him because he’s a very nice person, very good person. I am sure he gonna win a Grand Slam very soon, because when you have final in US Open, final in Australia, semifinals here this year and the last year, you are there all the time. So one day you win. I am sure he gonna win. He deserve to win.

Q. How well aware are you that he’s such a big fan of yours? He kept talking about you’re his favorite player to watch.

RAFAEL NADAL: Well, just can say thanks. He don’t need to admire a lot of things of me because he’s too good to admire me.

Q. Do you remember where you were the first Sunday of July last year? Did you watch the final?

RAFAEL NADAL: I watched at home, yeah, on the sofa.

Q. What are the recollections you have from that day? What else do you remember about the final last year, not being there?

RAFAEL NADAL: Just enjoying beautiful match. Was a very emotional match. I liked the tennis, so I enjoyed the match. I wasn’t ready to be here, so my mind wasn’t here.

Q. In view of Andy’s skill, were you surprised that you were able to close this out in just three sets?

RAFAEL NADAL: Sure. When I came to the match I was with the focus. I know how tough gonna be the match. I never thought win in three sets.

But at the same time, I never thought win in three sets, win in four, win in five, or lose in three or lose in four. I just go on court and try to play my best tennis point by point. That’s my style. I know I just need try play my best tennis. Only like this I going to have chances.

Q. Looking back now, does it surprise you you were able to complete this match so quickly?

RAFAEL NADAL: Sure. But he had few chances. This match is decides ‑‑ anyway, if was in three sets, this match is decide in very small things. If Andy makes this point and win the second set, maybe we are there. So everything can change in just one point.

Q. During the tournament we have found out from other players that they have been injured going into games. We found out after the game. Do you go into Sunday’s final a hundred percent fit? Your knees are ready to go?

RAFAEL NADAL: I hope so. I don’t know. I think I didn’t have any problem for the last three matches. But the pain in the second and especially in the third match is not forgot. Can be there and can’t be there in one moment, and I don’t have the control of this.

But I am still working every day to try to be healthy like I was the last three matches. But this pain sometimes appears there, and is there. I don’t know when it start and when it stop.

[…] Q. If you have to give a technical explanation why you won today, do you think it’s your forehand that was the big difference? Your forehand kills the point while Murray is a very good counterattacker, but it doesn’t have the same power when you slow down the ball and you slice your backhand.

RAFAEL NADAL: When you win these matches, is always the same thing: is play well and the mental thing. Mental part is decisive, no? If we talk about the technique, I served well some moments. Most of the time my serve works well.

And, sure, my feeling with the forehand was very good during all the tournament, yeah. Forehand makes the difference.

Q. We’ve had three classic finals in a row here. Do you expect to give us a fourth one Sunday?

RAFAEL NADAL: Ah, three five sets? Yeah, we had 2007. I don’t know. Sure, will be very difficult match. Will be very difficult match for me, and hopefully for him, too (smiling). I don’t know.

OK, let me get this out of the way: Rafa was incredible. Irresistible, indomitable … you know what, pick your own superlative and I’ll sign off on it. He deserves all of them. I may be lacking a lot of things (the ability to muster any attempt at graciousness right now, for example), but respect for Rafa is not one of them. He was [insert superlative], a true [insert noun], and demonstrated once again that his [insert superlative and noun] and [insert superlative and noun] are second to none.

Oh look.

It’s just that for me, Rafa being [insert superlative] is not … inspiring me right now. A flaw in me, no doubt, but we all know Rafa is both a magnificent player and an astounding competitor. It’s not a revelation. It’s not new. It’s yet another chapter in an unfolding tale of [insert superlative]. For me, it’s not the story. The story is where Murray came up short.

In case there was any doubt I’m British, that should have removed it.

Because Andy played well. He played really well. That’s just one of the many beautiful dimensions to this particular loss. He was in the points, in the games, threatening Rafa’s serve. He had break points in the first set, set points in the second set tiebreak, and led 4-2 in the third set. And what happened? Tame netted returns on second serves. Idiotic shot selection. Wild unforced forehand errors. Working brilliantly and courageously to earn himself an open court – and I don’t need to underline how hard that is to do against Rafa, do I? – and then time and again netting or going out when all he had to do was put it away.

I haven’t read much about this match yet (what do I need, ulcers?) but I gather the prevailing narrative is comprised primarily of (a) Rafa is [insert superlative] and (b) Murray was too passive. Well, that’s not what I saw. I thought Andy’s game plan was absolutely fine and would have been very effective. It was his execution that was the problem. Clearly, part of the credit for that goes to Rafa for being so damn [insert superlative] that his opponent feels he has to hit a perfect shot in order to win the point. Equally clearly, part of the blame goes to Andy. It isn’t as if he doesn’t have the experience, either of playing Nadal in Slams or being in a Wimbledon semi-final. And it certainly isn’t that he doesn’t have the ability.

What he didn’t have was what was required, or quite enough of what was required. Whatever you want to call it – heart, guts, balls, courage. The winner’s mentality. Whatever it was, he didn’t have it. And so the fact remains that he was close in every respect to Rafa (91 points to 98, if that helps). But he still lost in straight sets. Which rather raises the question of what the fucking point was, exactly.

Would it have been easier if Rafa had steamrolled Andy and been unquestionably superior from first to last? Possibly. The grass is always greener (although in fairness, the grass has almost always been greener than it is this year). I do feel that that possibility might have held out more hope for the future. It’s not unknown, after all, for a player to go from being double-bagelled in the quarterfinals of a Slam to beating that same opponent in five sets in a different Slam barely nine months later. A bad day can become a good day. But when a good day, a very good day, is still not enough – not nearly enough – and the responsibility lies primarily at your door, precisely what hope is there?

OK, I’m so tired I can barely see, so let’s just wrap the other guys up in one mammoth, picture-heavy post …

Rafael Nadal d. Robin Soderling, 36 63 76(4) 61

Odd match, this one. I didn’t see much of it, but what I did see confused me. I looked at the score and Robin was leading 5-0 in the opening set; then I looked back and he was going off on Pascal Maria.

Weirdness. Anyway, Rafa obviously righted the ship and that’s about all I can say about that. So the closest thing that the draw has to a defending champion left is through to the semi-finals. Yay. As for Robin, he fizzled a bit after a devastating start to the tournament, but it’s still a good Wimbledon for him. I want him to keep this up and kick on in the summer. It can happen.

Novak Djokovic d. Yen-Hsun Lu, 63 62 62

It’s remarkable how under-the-radar Nole has been this tournament, even in the quarterfinals. Perhaps that’s exactly what he needed, because something’s working. OK, so it was a tough ask for Lu to back up his win over Roddick with a win over Nole, but from what I saw, Djoko (heh) was playing absolutely fantastic. His semi-final against Berdych should be a cracker, and if Berdych has any kind of a letdown from the form he displayed against Federer, Nole has an excellent chance to make the final. Nole. In the final. It could happen. And he looks like he’s having fun. I think that deserves a small picspam.

Fly, Nole. Fly high.

Andy Murray d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 67(5) 76(5) 62 62

This was billed, I think deservedly, as Murray’s first real test of the tournament, and in some ways it didn’t quite live up to the expectations. Murray came out worryingly passive, wasn’t serving great, and the imperious form of the early rounds looked like it might be proving to be an illusion.

As Murray’s early break in the second set dissolved and Jo went up a minibreak in the tiebreak, it looked like a lot of the glee I heard from people in my office at the thought that Federer was out of the way (hello, Nadal?) was going to get the kind of response it deserved. Luckily for Murray, however, Jo made a bizarre decision at 5-5 in the tiebreak to leave a reflex stretch return from Murray, and it dropped in to give Andy a set point which he duly took. That decision seemed to take the wind out of Jo’s sails completely and he rather faded away in the third and fourth sets, allowing Murray to cruise to the finish line.

So a lucky escape for Murray in some ways, but he got the win. He’s through. And from now on, what with that Nadal bloke and everything, getting the win is all that matters.